When we arrived to our village
There was quite a commotion going on
Upon inquiring
We learned that Mountain Chief
Had also just returned from a meeting
He had been at with other Chiefs
He was happy to see Moon Cow and I
And, along with the elders
We all went into the big teepee
And had talks.

We learned that every day
The U.S. Army was getting more and more aggressive
With locating and systematically
Forcing all the tribes onto
What they were calling ‘Treaty Lands’,
Reserves, they said, for our safety
And to uphold our traditions
Mountain Chief shared a few stories he had heard
About the U.S. Army promising everything
But then once the papers were signed
They were not respected
And abused
And had even heard of some tribes
That had been slaughtered
Once they had signed the treaty.

Even worse,
The tribes that didn’t sign
Or refused to sign
Were declared enemies of the country
And hunted like outlaws
Mountain Chief had told many
About where what we had done
Though they most likely already knew
But there were a few others that were following our lead
And going further into the mountains
It was hard though
To leave their traditional land
An act of cowardice to some of the Chiefs
An act that they would refuse to do
With their heads held high
As they went into battle.

I greatly respected Mountain Chief
For the sacrifices he had made
To bring us here
No doubt he was criticized for his actions
And he, himself, probably thought about it too
But he had his vision
Which had led him here
And he was a proud man
And we all trusted him with our lives
He was our leader.

We learned of many of the other tribes
Particularly the Sioux
Who were not our friends
Fighting the U.S. Army,
Even the Canadian government
In the East
Was trying to do the same with the tribes
The RCMP was then doing their dirty work
Some of the tribes were fighting them
Nobody liked to hear all this news
It was a scary time for everybody to think
About what the future meant.

As Willow lay on the ground motionless
Both Moon Cow and I put two more arrows
Into the belly of the mama bear as she stood up
Which shook her enough
To make her turn around and start walking off
With her baby now
In front of her and moving away
Moon Cow motioned to me to tend to Willow
And he slowly followed the bear
Putting two more arrows into her
Before she finally collapsed some distance beyond
The edge of the clearing.

When he came back to us
He had the bear cub by ruff of its baby neck
I was minding to Willow
Who didn’t have any cuts or bruises
That I could see immediately
But she was whiter then a ghost
And not responding to me
Knocked out I could only guess
By this time, Lily was up and out of her bed
Very worried about her mother
To keep her busy
I asked her to clean up what the bear had knocked down
And if she could, a cup of tea for her mother
I took some of the sweet mint leaves
And rubbed them together under her nose
Which slowly brought some colour back to her face
Her breathing became more dominant
And her eyes opened
And the first thing she said was
Is Lily ok?

I smiled at her and said Lily was right here
Who came over and lay down next to her mom
With a blanket in her hand
That she wrapped around the two of them
Clearly shaken and trying to be brave
I asked Willow if anything hurt
She said she couldn’t really tell
So I started with getting her to wiggle her toes
Which she was able to
Then I asked her to rock her feet slowly
From side to side
Which she was able to
I then pinched her toes
Which she said she could feel
So I declared she was going to live
And everybody laughed a little bit,
Including Willow
Which immediately made her wince in pain
Pointing to her stomach.

Through a process of poking and prodding
I eventually concluded that she had broken a rib or two
I was relieved (and so was she)
That when she next peed
There was no blood in it
We both knew what that would mean.

We decided to take the day
To decide which direction we should go
To Frank and Amy’s, where they had a warm house
And all the care we could ask for
This was still about a two days walk
If Willow wasn’t going to be able to ride a horse,
The other option was to head back to the village
Which would be about a days walk from here
Maybe two, if it was really hard for her to walk
Moon Cow proposed we make a sleigh
For her to ride in
But I knew that that would be no more comfortable
Then her riding the horse
And Willow agreed with this
So we decided that walking
Would be the smartest route for her.

By the end of the day
Willow was able to walk around
In moderate comfort
And we could definitely see the bruising starting to form
On her left rib area
Where the bear had collided nearly full charge.

When I returned home it had been decided that
One of the young women who had just come of age
Would take Runs Wild, Long Arrow’s eldest son,
To be her man
There was a bit of to-do about the village
As everybody began preparing
For the potlatch
They were different
Then what I knew as weddings
The host, in this case Long Arrow,
Would bestow gifts upon the guests
Based on their rank
In our own way we prepared some special things
For the family was very close to us
Willow was nearly every day helping Mercy
She would come home at night
And I could see her hands
Were worked to the bone making something or other
I would laugh kindly as I’d get
Some Buffalo fat and rub her hands for a while.

The potlatch was quite special for me
It was a bit similar to the ceremonies
I had witnessed the year before
But there were a lot of symbolic gestures
That I had to ask Willow the meanings of
I asked Willow if this is what it was like for her
When she took her man
And she smiled and squeezed my hand
And Moon Cow, who was right next to me too,
Winked at me and exaggerated about the grandeur
Of her ceremony
Explaining to me how ten thousand people arrived
From all the hills in every direction
And the ceremony lasted
For one full moon cycle
I only half disbelieved him
For I’d believe two moon cycles were even too short a time
To celebrate in honour of Willow
I had heard many times how honourable
Willow and Moon Cow’s father had been.

We stayed up late with drums and fire
And lots of dancing that everybody loved
It seemed to come and go in waves
The beat of the drums, size of the fire,
Sweat on my forehead
Ecstasy like I had never experienced before
I’d watch Willow dance with the other women
A dream for me, watching her smile and move
Showcasing the steps she had memorized as a young woman
It was a true celebration of souls uniting
Supported by the entire family,
I stuffed myself silly
Because Mercy had some girls
Endlessly circling with more and more food
For everyone to eat.

The next morning as I woke
The mid-Spring frost still hung heavy
And little curls of smoke
Ascended from the big fire
That had powerfully burnt the night before
I could see everywhere around
There were little shelters that we had erected
Preparing for the potlatch
For the visitors that had come
Which, to be truthful, wasn’t that much
On account of us being more isolated
From our friendly tribes
It’s hard to get word out when nobody’s out there
I walked the village
Lost in what seemed to be a dreamworld
Saying hello to the early risers I’d see rummaging around
Wondering to myself what it would be like
If Willow and I had a ceremony
When I came back inside our teepee
Willow was boiling some delicious smelling tea
And I sat down and just watched her for a while.

We returned to the waterfall
Where I had told the scouts to go
And to bring Willow and Lily
I was happy to see them there
And the scouts had also found
Most of the other women and children
I took three of the older scouts with me
Tall Pine included
And we made our way back to the village
To assess everything.

When we arrived there
Our hearts sank
As they had the first time I saw the damage
Teepees tipped over and half burnt
Same fate for the smokehouses
We found two women killed
And one young scout killed
With a tomahawk in his hand
There were three other women mulling around
In a complete state of shock
But only minor injuries, bruises and cuts,
From trying to fight
Upon finding the state of things
I sent one of the scouts to the Waterfall
To bring everybody back.

We were relieved to see
Not much other damage had been done
I had come upon much worse before
But it’s never easy to see
Our hearts were sullen as we
Built platforms on the edge of the village
To place our dead people.

When that was done
We all began to try and piece together
The teepees and smokehouses
There was still lots of meat to be smoked
And we knew that the hunting party would return soon
Hoping we would need to smoke lots of meat.

That night I told Willow as we sat side by side
Around the fire that was burning
In the center of our village
What had happened when Tall Pine and I
Had tracked the men down
She sat silently as I told her
And put her arm around me when I was done
I could see a few of the other women
Were listening to the story
All of the scouts, too
Were straining their ears to listen
I made sure to embellish
The fearlessness that Tall Pine had shown.

One of our favorite places to go
To the South, about two hours
We had found the lookout after wandering
For medicinal herbs one summer day
We didn’t hear anything as we walked up
And we didn’t hear anything from where we sat
But looking out, we watched an abnormal amount
Of smoking coming from our village.

I trotted ahead cautiously
Keeping my eyes on alert
And my hatchet in my hand
As I got closer
I flanked our village on the West
And came across a few of the children
To afraid to move, watching
Most of the teepees had been knocked over
As well as the smoke houses
The men had left two days ago
On a hunting party West
Into the deeper forest and mountains
And weren’t expected for a few more days
So it was mostly women and children left.

It was hard to know who had done this
There were clear signs of horses
Often with missing shoes
Which could mean a band of renegades
Most Army men kept their horses happy
And any Tribe I ever came across
Didn’t shoe their horses
They had come from the North
I could see that clear enough.

There was very little movement or sound
Coming from our small village
Except the smouldering smoke
So I walked into the encampment
On high alert
Listening and watching
I found one woman who had been badly hurt
I asked her where did they go,
She pointed West
I came across two killed
No doubt in my mind a few had been taken
A few of the elders had holes through their chests
My guess was five god damn renegades
Chicken shit bastards
With loaded guns and fire on their breath.

I went back to the young scouts I had come across
And told them Willow and Lily were coming
Where I had just come from
I made it known they should go that way now
And intercept them before they got here
And direct them into the Woods
To the East side of the Waterfall
Where the big fir had fallen over
I took the eldest with me
He had his bow and arrows
As we scanned the village.

I heard from one of the teepees some noise
And looked inside
One of the bastards was on a woman
And I buried my hatchet into his head
I told her to keep quiet
And where we were meeting at, to go to
She grabbed a few tools and snuck away.

There were no others
I could only guess the one I had killed
Was reaping the benefits
Of the renegades he was following
For he didn’t look like much of anything
Nor worth keeping any kind of company
I followed the ones who had left
Horse tracks to the West
For fifteen minutes
And didn’t come upon them
When I reached the creek
I saw they had crossed and kept going
Deeper West, moving fast
I hoped that the men would come upon them
And see any women or children that had been taken
They would know what had happened at once
And do what had to be done.

I had started my journey West by myself. Myself and John-bo my trusty steed. John-bo was a donkey. John-bo carried my two wooden packs on each side, day in day out. I walked beside.

For the first seven days of travel I came upon pioneers of all sorts. Some just starting out, some coming out. One day I reached a sign that said: “End of the road. New York back that way. If you’re walking this way you have 15 days until you will reach the next post.”

I knew trading posts were common along these routes.

I checked John-bo’s packs. We had enough rice for four months. I was glad I didn’t have to pack his food too.

It took me a while to get used to the walking. I was used to light stepping through city streets by this time wearing awful fashions I hadn’t really enjoyed. I hadn’t been able to get a proper pair of mukluks until I was well into Iroquois land.

I had walked into a friendly Seneca village who hadn’t been expecting me. I must have slipped past their scouts with my light stepping – not likely. Like I said, they were peaceful.

There were a few other white men there in the village. Some were drunk and chasing women. The Seneca men cringed when we both caught site of one. I think they eyed me suspiciously because of this. I hoped I wouldn’t find this in all the villages I would come along.

I should have taken my long barrel to the drunks. I could tell they wanted me to.

I had kept my long barrel next to me for the first fortnight. I didn’t enjoy walking without it, for fear of the unknown. Perhaps because of laziness I found a slip to hold it on ol’ John-bo.

Ten days after I left Iroquois land, the Seneca, I came upon a line of twelve women and nine men. Only seven married couplets among them and four rascals, each old enough to know which end of the shotgun to look down. They talked a lot and moved slower, though I enjoyed the company. It was nice to not communicate in grunts and gestures.

The beaten down travelers
Traveled through swamps
Traveled through deserts
Traveled through the untraveled terrain
Until they reached the bridge

The secret to success
Lay in crossing the bridge
The valley lay deep
The river ran wild
And they faced the bridge

Awaiting the train
Of which never came
They sat day and night
Distanced from food
Comforted by the fire
And the gurgle of water

The hours turned into days
The days into weeks
The food started scarce
The food was now gone
Yet still they waited
For the non existent train

And then, like a flicker of hope
Streaming out of the distance
A lone whistle was heart
They travelers all heard
They waited in silence
Unable to move, unbelieving at first

But as the train moved along
Beside their ragged shoulders
They slowly gathered their camp
And began the treacherous pass

The little ones were silent
As they held their breath across
The elders acted knowing
As if they had done this before
But as the last of the travelers
Passed across at the end
They celebrated with excitement
Like they had been, come, and gone

Soon they had made it
To the destination they sought
They set up their tents
And led their mules out to pasture
Plots were then got
Land was then claimed
A village was sprung
On the other side of the bridge